Travelin' Soldier
by Chibi Horsewoman
Summary: Songfic based on another Dixie Chicks song. InuYasha is the travelin' Soldier, Kagome is the waitress at the cafe. Read to find the rest out.


Travelin' Soldier 

Aurthoress' note: This is a stark contrast to my last Dixie Chicks based songfic. You may need to get out a few tissues for this one since it's more along the lines of my Evanescence based songfic. Still I hope it's enjoyed.

**_Disclaimer: I don't own InuYasha, Dixie Chicks, or the song_**_ **Travelin' Soldier. I do own this idea, and the Home CD.**_

            InuYasha grimaced at his reflection in the restaurant's plate glass window. He still couldn't get used top the fact that his hair wasn't waist length anymore and he was now wearing BDUs. The military's battle dress uniform was less than flattering on his lean frame. InuYasha sat at the bus stop with a rucksack by his feet in the same olive drab as his uniform; the young man still couldn't believe he had spent his birthday at the recruiting office.

            "And my brother won't even send me a letter." He told himself.

            _Two days past eighteen._

_            He was waiting for the bus in his army greens._

"I probably missed it anyway." InuYasha muttered to himself. "I may as well go in the diner to warm up and wait for the next bus to come along." He went inside and sat down at a booth by the window.

            A waitress came and handed him a menu, she had her medium length black hair held back with a blue bow. "I'll come right back for your order."

            "Don't worry, all I want is coffee and a bowl of ramen."

            _Sat down in a booth in a café there._

_Gave his order to a girl with a bow in her hair._

As soon as InuYasha had said that, his face turned pink and he began to contemplate the cracked Formica table. This caused the waitress to smile at him.

"I'm sorry, it's just that you're rather pretty-oops sorry, bad pick up line." He paused then, "I'm a little nervous, I leave for basic training soon and I was wondering if you could sit and talk with me for a while. This whole situation is depressing."

_He's a little shy so she gives him a smile._

_And he says would you mind sitting down for a while and talking to me_

_I'm felling a little low._

Just then a customer called for the girl halfway across the room.

"I'm sorry too, I'm getting rushed at right and left." She looked at his crestfallen face. "But if you don't mind waiting for an hour we can go some place a bit more serene to talk." And with that she smiled again. "Oh, I'm Kagome Higurashi."

_She said I'm off in an hour and I know where we can go._

"I'm InuYasha Mori. And I'll be waiting for that talk, Kagome."

That hour seemed to drag on for days for InuYasha, even though Kagome made attempts to stop at his table to check up on him and to refill his chipped ceramic coffee cup. Finally the young waitress came over wearing a sweatshirt and bellbottom jeans.

Taking hold of his hand, Kagome grinned and said, "C'mon InuYasha, I'll show you were I meant."

_So they went down and they sat on the pier._

_He said 'I bet you got a boyfriend, but I don't care._

_I've got no one to send a letter to. Would you mind if I sent one back here to you?_

"Do you have a boyfriend?" InuYasha asked quietly as they tossed rocks into the water.

Kagome waited a minute before responding. "No, I'm to busy between work and school to have a boyfriend." She said wistfully.

"Would you mind if I wrote to you while I'm away?"

"Only if I can write back to you."

InuYasha smiled then. "I'd like that very much. Knowing that I have someone to come home to will probably make this whole thing going faster."

_I cried. Never gonna hold the hand of another guy._

_Too young for him they told her. Waitin' for the love of a travelin' soldier._

_Our love will never end. Waitin' for the soldier to come back again._

_Never more to be alone when the letter said a soldier's coming home._

InuYasha was very diligent about writing to Kagome and she received quite a few letters every day. In turn Kagome would write back just as faithfully during study hall and after she finished her homework. As time marched on the letters began to get more serious. In a few of his letters, InuYasha began to tell Kagome that he loved her. 

Kagome's mother began to worry and she would sometimes tell her daughter that she shouldn't take some things so fast. 'Slow down Kagome, she would say, don't be in such a rush for love. You're still young.' However, Mrs. Higurashi's warnings either fell on deaf ears or came too late because Kagome was indeed falling in love with her travelin' soldier.

_So the letters came from an army camp in California then Vietnam._

_And he told her of his hear it might be love._

_And all of the things he was so scared of._

Kagome would watch the nightly news with her mother; the conflict in Vietnam wasn't getting any better. At night she would lay on her bed and worry about InuYasha often not falling asleep until an hour before her alarm was set to go off. The letters coming from him were becoming few and far between, but hadn't he warned her that something like that might happen?

He said when it's getting kinda rough over here, I think of that day sittin' down at the pier.

_And I close my eyes and I see your pretty smile._

_Don't worry but I won't be able to write for a while._

'Yes, that was it,' Kagome thought to herself, 'There's a lot of fighting going on over there, he can't just sit down in a foxhole and write me a letter then mail it at the nearest post office.'

However, there was always this nagging feeling in her head that just wouldn't leave her thoughts. And sometimes Kagome's heart was heavy because it felt like she may never see him again.

_I cried. Never gonna hold the hand of another guy._

_Too young for him they told her. Waitin' for the love of a travelin' soldier._

_Our love will never end. Waitin' for the soldier to come back again._

_Never more to be alone when the letter said, a soldier's coming home._

The night of the high school's homecoming football game arrived and Kagome couldn't believe that her own mother wanted her to go cheer for her school's varsity team as if there was nothing wrong with the world. Actually, Kagome couldn't put too much blame on her mother; she _had_ been moping around the house lately. Maybe being with some of her friends would be a good thing. However it wasn't meant to be, the newest list of local men and women killed or missing in action had just come out and there was going to be a short ceremony for them at the game tonight.

One Friday night at a football game, the Lord's Prayer said and the anthem sang.

_A man said, "folks would you bow your heads, for a list of the local Vietnam dead."_

As she looked down, Kagome spotted an eighth grader who played the piccolo sitting under the bleachers with his head between his knees, shaking back and forth. Closing her eyes to that scene Kagome crossed her fingers as the man reading the names from an unbearably long list got to the M's.

"Michaels, Victor. Mitchell, Jennifer." The man paused as he came to an unfamiliar name. "Mori, InuYasha?"

"Noooooo!" Kagome cried out drawing unwanted attention to herself. Nobody else showed any emotion for this unknown young man.

Crying all alone under the stands was a piccolo player in the marching band.

_And one name read, nobody really cared, but a pretty little girl, with a bow in her hair._

Kagome jumped up from her seat on the bleachers and pushed past the other spectators who stared as though the raven-haired girl with the blue bow has gone completely mad. As soon as she reached the ground, Kagome took off like a bullet, not stopping until she reached her mother's arms.

 "Oh, baby, I'm sorry." Mrs. Higurashi murmured into her grief stricken daughter's hair.

All Kagome could say in reply was, "He's gone mama. He's really gone."

_I cried. Never gonna hold the hand of another guy._

_Too young for him they told her. Waitin' for the love of a travelin' soldier._

_Our love will never end. Waitin' for the soldier to come back again._

_Never more to be alone when the letter says a soldier's coming…_

 Kagome stayed in her room for five days, refusing to eat or talk to anyone. This depression worried her mother to death because all Kagome would say is, '_He's coming home.'_

_I cried. Never gonna hold the hand of another guy._

_Too young for him they told her. Waitin' for the love of a travelin' soldier._

_Our love will never end. Waitin' for the soldier to come back again._

_Never more to be alone when the letter says a soldier's coming home._

On the sixth day of her mourning period a Western Union man showed up at the door with a telegram for Kagome. Her mother made her put on some clothes and answer the door herself. When Kagome reached the door, the young man held out the telegram to the girl who took it rather reluctantly. Opening the envelope Kagome couldn't believe her eyes, there had been a mistake, InuYasha wasn't dead. He really was coming home.

_The End._

Like it or hate it? Do you want to kill me for leaving you in suspense? Okay, whatever. I just want you all to know that this ending was loosely based on a true story. My grandpa was falsely presumed dead after the attack on Pearl Harbor and my grandma received a telegram saying he was dead. A few days later they had to send her _another_ telegram saying he _wasn't_ dead.


End file.
